2018 Nissan NV350 Urvan with automatic gearbox to arrive by November

AutoIndustriya.com / Nissan Press | October 23, 2017 08:40

Last month, it was announced that Nissan Philippines Inc. (NPI) will be bringing in the Urvan Premium with an automatic transmission. Now, NPI says that the updated 2018 NV350 Urvan will be available in the Philippine market soon, by the next month to be exact. Not only will the Urvan Premium get an update; the standard, narrow-body versions of the said van will also get tweaks.

Note: RHD model for illustration purposes only

Considering it has only been three months since its Japanese debut, the impending arrival of the updated van comes as a bit of a surprise, although it is one that is definitely welcome in the market. While full specs have yet to be revealed, it will essentially be a left-hand drive version of the NV350 Caravan, the Urvan's nameplate in its home market.

In line with the current design language of Nissan, the 2018 Urvan Premium gets a bolder, more prominent 'V-motion' grill. Also new for the 2018 model year is the front bumper as well as its foglight housings. Rounding up the changes to the front are LED headlights. The rear meanwhile gets new tail lights with rearranged clusters. Also new is the wheel cover design. As for the rest of the van's body, it carries over unchanged.

Nissan Philippines Inc. president and managing director Ramesh Narasimhan also added that the 2018 Urvan Premium will be getting more standard equipment. The chief of the company did not state what exact features will be made standard to the large van, but it may likely be automatic climate control or even an upgraded audio and entertainment system. It is also possible that it might even gain more safety features.

As mentioned, the biggest news here is the addition of an automatic transmission for the larger, wider Premium variant. Like its Japanese counterpart, it will be a five-speed unit although manual variants will remain. As for the shorter and narrow-body models, those will continue using a five-speed manual transmission.

In its home market of Japan, it is powered by a 2.5-liter turbodiesel engine, along with two gas options consisting of 2.0- and 2.5-liter units. It is unlikely that we will be getting the gas options in the country. As for the diesel, it is still the familiar engine sourced from the current model, meaning an output of 129 PS and 356 Nm of torque.

As for pricing, Narasimhan mentioned that the automatic Urvan Premium's retail will not be far off from the manual model.

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